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Tag Archives: Hackney
North London ‘Smart Homes’ retrofit scheme launches
November 2014: A news report highlighting a new ‘Smart Homes’ retrofit Project which provides “homeowners in six North London boroughs access to upgrades that can help to significantly boost the sustainability of their properties…The year-long scheme will be the first of its kind in the UK, and aims to make it simpler and more affordable for residents to install insulation that will help to reduce their energy costs.”
Haringey Council’s website reveals that the project is one that was successfully awarded funding earlier this year under government’s Green Deal Communities Fund, details of which can be found in an earlier post here. The project focuses on solid wall insulation and on Victorian and Edwardian terraces where simple, cheap energy upgrades can be difficult because of the design of the older buildings. Residents in Haringey, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest are eligible for the scheme, which is designed see more than three quarters of work carried out by local traders. The scheme is open to both owner occupiers and landlords (or tenants with landlord consent) from the boroughs and is available up to 31st March 2015.
Further information can be found on the Smart Homes pages on Camden’s website – and on Camden’s Green Deal page here.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, News
Tagged Camden, Energy Efficiency, Enfield, Green Deal, Hackney, Haringey, insulation, Islington, Retrofit, Solid Wall Insulation, Waltham Forest
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Slam Climate Change
June 2014: An interesting report in Independent that:
“…scientists are being told to use art and poetry to win public support in the battle to curb climate change. Dame Julia Slingo, the chief scientist at the Met Office, has called for a radical overhaul of the way climate scientists go about their business, arguing that they need to make their reports less turgid and more engaging.
“We have to look increasingly at what society requires of us… We increasingly recognise that to reach the general public we have to use all sorts of different channels of communication,” Dame Julia told a recent gathering of leading climate change scientists at the University of Exeter.
“And it’s not through tables and graphs. Sometimes it is through art, through music, through poetry, and storytelling and that is increasingly something we have to think about – how we communicate in a more humanist way.”
With this in mind, its interesting to see that an event took place over the weekend in Hackney, as part of a programme called The Spark, entitled ‘Using hip-hop and music to empower communities and tackle Climate Change’, and earlier this year the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change held a novel poetry slam ‘Rhyme & Reason: Reflections on Climate Change‘ evening (poster below), performances from which can be seen here – and additional details of the night here.
Energy efficiency programme for London’s ‘Cultural & Heritage’ sector
June 2014: The Mayor’s non-domestic energy efficiency programme, RE:FIT, recently held an event focused on improving the energy performance London’s Cultural & Heritage buildings. Presentations were provided by RE:FIT participants the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Millfield Theatre, who undertook their RE:FIT project through the London Borough of Enfield. Details of the event can be read here – and an article on green improvements made at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre, who plan to work with the RE:FIT programme shortly, can be see here.
Seperately, the always innovative Arcola Theatre was profiled as a case study in the government’s recent solar energy strategy for their work on using solar PV together with energy storage technology (see page 48 of the strategy document here).
Posted in Energy Efficiency, News, Renewable Energy
Tagged Buildings, Enfield, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Photovoltaics, RE:FIT, Richmond
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PV storage trialled in Hackney
5 April 2014: The latest Feed in Tariff (FITs) statistics continues to show London’s abysmal progress on installing photovoltaic projects (see story here) – but at least today’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Solar Strategy (PII) highlights that there is some innovative stuff going on with PV in the capital. Not surprisingly the ground-breaking Arcola Theatre is involved (the theatre company with a fuel cell business at the side…) – see case study from strategy copied below.
Could you warm to a district heating scheme?
March 2014: As part of work Which? are helpfully taking forward on consumer protection rights issues for people connected to district heat networks, Which? held an online discussion on consumer attitudes to district heating. Though the thread started some time ago in 2013, contributions from unhappy customers signed to a number of new networks in London are still raising their issues as of only a few days ago. Schemes in Dalston, the Olympic Village, and an unnamed SE London scheme are referenced (some of which are copied below). It should be said that one commenter does also mention “The Pimlico district heating scheme has been running for many years without any consumer issues.”
“Hi. I have just recently moved into a 2 bed new build in Dalston, East London a year ago. I have now received my first E-On bill for our heating and it comes in at a whopping £579 / 3600kWh (and this is just for 10 months). Whilst I normally welcome any energy saving initiative, I am left ultimately baffled why…”
“I have been living in a building in SE London with such a scheme for nearly two years now. Our heat bill is never below £45 per month, even in summer when it’s only used for showers for 2 people. In the summer months half of our monthly heating bill is made up of the service charge!”
“I live in an apartment block in London which operates such a scheme. Whilst this is my main residence I only occupy the apartment four nights per week. My average bill is circa £36 per month. Only £5 of this is the actual usage, the remainder being standing charge and VAT.”
“Me and my partner moved into a 1-bed apartment in the Olympic Village, London at the end of November and we have just challenged the DH supplier (East London Energy) about the costs. Many residents were shocked, as we were, to receive high bills. We were only told at the last minute that the DH scheme would be how our heating/hot water would be supplied, and while I’m all up for it in principle, I feel that the companies supplying it are ripping us off. We’re paying about £40 per month and we’ve had the heating set at 10 degrees a lot of the time.”
“My prices via EON in SE London:
standing charge: 85.871p/day (31 days=£26.61)
usage: 7.29p/kWh
VAT @ 5%
My spend with EON (district heating only, electricity is on top of that through a different supplier) in 2012/13: £814.84 for a 2 bed flat.”
“Here at Olympic Village we are trying to get through to the Olympic Development Authority and East London Energy who have set their costs too high to be sustainable for the consumer. At the moment, still waiting for something meaningful from them to show they’re taking our concerns seriously enough.”
Which? are now following up their 2013 work – see ‘District heat users – are you happy with your service?‘
Posted in Decentralised Energy, News
Tagged Community Heating, Decentralised Energy, Hackney
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Hackney Energy hit the ground running!
January 2014: This week saw some positive news stories concerning a new London community energy group – Hackney Energy. The group launched a new twitter account @HackneyEnergy and website and – more importantly – announced that they had established a new community solar project. It’s modest at 3.84kW – but it helps power a public toilet and cafe in Clapton. Read a blog on the great story behind this project.
And on Friday the Hackney Gazette and Inside Housing covered plans by Hackney Energy to work with Repowering London on a community PV project, similar in scope to the Brixton Energy scheme. The Gazette reports that:
“Youth internships and apprenticeships will also be created by the scheme, which plans to will increase awareness about energy efficiency, provide a financial return to investors, and reduce Hackney’s carbon footprint.
“Repower London’s chief executive officer, Agamemnon Otero said: “It’s not just about putting some solar panels up on the roof, but it’s about creating a platform for those who are most disaffected, those who are out of work, so there’s something they can be part of, so they can donate their time and energy and see their community changing.” Also see Hackney Council news release.
Barking & Dagenham most energy efficient local authority in UK
November 2013: A news release from Imperial College highlights a recent study examining the energy consumption of all 198 urban local authorities in the UK, including 33 boroughs in London. Dr James Keirstead has developed a “new method that draws on three different measures of energy efficiency, currently used by city planners, to create the ranking. The aim was to find the fairest methodology for determining energy efficiency that could give planners an improved way of spotting best practice, leading to more energy efficient and sustainable policies in the future.”
“The London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Hackney topped the league table of all UK urban areas analysed in the study…This may be because both are low income areas, equating to lower energy usage. Residents of those areas are also more reliant on public transport and these boroughs lack energy-intensive manufacturing and commerce, which may also be other factors that explain why consumption is lower.”
The news report is a very short summary of a detailed research paper published by Dr Keirstead in technical journal Energy Policy (which unfortunately has a price tag associated with downloading the paper). The table from the paper providing a ranking of UK local authorities by average energy efficiency score is reproduced below:
Other London boroughs within the top 10 are Hackney, Merton, Redbridge and Kingston. Oddly, the top two ranked London councils are both within inner London, however, the remaining three in the 10 are all suburban local authorities.
Local authorities in England have now reported to Government on energy efficiency activities in their area in HECA update reports – for more of which, see here.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, News
Tagged Barking and Dagenham, Data, Energy Efficiency, Hackney, HECA, Kingston, Local Authorities, Merton, Redbridge
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Shoreditch Heat Network Nominated for Green Award
September 2013: Hackney Homes has been nominated for an Inside Housing Green Performance Award for its recent refurbishment of the Shoreditch Heat Network. Further details on this scheme are provided on the following Vital Energi case study which describes how the company went about “replacing their ageing, inefficient and expensive gas and oil fired boilers with the London Borough of Hackney’s first council-owned Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant and heat network“. Further details are also in the following article in the Hackney Post.
Hackney Homes set out that the network installed is “More energy efficient than traditional methods of generation, the combined heat and power engine burns natural gas to generate electricity and uses the heat generated to supply heating and hot water.
Residents will receive individual heat metering prepayment cards, giving them the freedom to manage and budget for their own heating; reducing the financial burden on households whose energy consumption is low.”
£67.23m of DE projects to be delivered in London
22 April 2013: A useful update on some of London’s key decentralised energy (DE) projects being supported by the Mayor has been produced for the GLA Investment and Performance Board meeting taking place tomorrow (23 April). The Mayor’s Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit (DEPDU) is a three-year programme set up in August 2011 with €3.3m funding, 90% of which was secured from the European Investment Bank’s ELENA facility.
The paper (link to paper, direct here) sets out that the GLA has a contractual target with the EIB to deliver £67.23m of DE projects to market before the 3rd of August 2014. The following projects as of 31st December 2012 have been taken to market through the GLA’s Decentralised Energy for London programme and, as agreed with the EIB as eligible projects. Together, they represent £42.3m, or 64% of the final ELENA target.
| Project | Eligible CAPEX (£) | Construction completed | CO2 savings (t/year) | Project stage |
| Islington Bunhill Phase 1 | £6,499,107 | 2011 | 2,950 | Operational |
| Cranston Estate | £7,800,000 | 2011 | 1,200 | Operational |
| Crystal Palace CHP | £1,490,000 | 2011 | 1,850 | Operational |
| Olympic Fringe Extension | £1,350,000 | 2011 | 960 | Operational |
| Royal Free | £6,073,621 | 2012 | 4,060 | Operational |
| Brent South Kilburn | £17,170,000 | Unknown* | 835 | Procurement |
| Lewisham Goldsmiths College | £1,911,706 | 2014 | 947 | Construction |
| TOTALS | £42,294,434 | – | 12,800 | – |
The paper states that when “fully developed and in operation, these projects will contribute with 4.7 MW of installed electrical capacity (and 35.7 MW of installed thermal capacity (enough to provide heat and power to 6,000 homes) to London’s generation from DE sources and will save up to an estimated 12,800 tonnes of CO2 per annum.
“In addition, the DEPDU is also currently supporting the development of an additional 22 projects with a combined value of £304m. Of these, five are in advanced stages of development, and are expected to be brought to market within the following 12 months.”
| Project | Estimated CAPEX (£) | Construction completed | CO2 savings (t/year) | Project stage |
| Euston Road | £7,025,000 | 2014 | 4,594 | Procurement |
| Westminster PDHU / Whitehall | £5,480,000 | 2015 | 5,500 | Business case |
| SELCHP | £6,000,000 | 2013 | 3,395 | Construction |
| LSIP | £2,000,000 | 2014 | 1,584 | Procurement |
| Haringey North Tottenham | £8,060,000 | 2016 | 5,148 | Pre-feasibility |
| TOTALS | £28,565,000 | – | 20,200 | – |
When fully developed and in operation, the paper states “these projects will contribute with 3.2 MW of installed electrical capacity and 90 MW of installed thermal capacity (enough to provide heat and power to 14,000 and 4,500 homes respectively) to London’s generation from DE sources and will save up to an estimated 20,200 tonnes of CO2 per annum.”
The paper goes on to say that the “paper does not include projections on jobs created. However, it is our intention to incorporate estimates of jobs created for future reporting and we will work with GLA Economics to establish a robust methodology.”
Further information on many of these projects can be found by searching on this website.
Posted in Decentralised Energy, News
Tagged Brent, Camden, CHP, Decentralised Energy, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, SELCHP, Westminster
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Green Deal training for Landlords
February 2013: Future Climate are undertaking training seminars for landlords on the Green Deal and ECO which “will help you understand how you can make the most of this new financing in keeping your properties up to date.”
Dates, times and venues for training
Monday 18 February 2013 – 9.30am to 12.30pm &1.30pm to 4.30pm – London Borough of Camden
Tuesday 19 February 2013 – 9.30am to 12.30pm – London Borough of Camden
Wednesday 20 February 2013 – 9.30am to 12.30pm and1.30pm to 4.30pm – London Borough of Camden
Thursday 21 February 2013 9.30am to 12.30pm – London Borough of Hackney
Monday 25 February 2013 9.30am to 12.30pm – London Borough of Camden
Full details on Future Climate’s website. The project is funded under DECC’s Green Deal Pioneer Places Fund.
Retrofit for the Future – London projects
September 2012: The Retrofit for the Future programme’s Low Energy Buildings database website has recently been updated. The database is a repository of low-energy building information created to help inform the planning and development of low energy new build and refurbishment. The website allows users to browse projects in the database, and create and edit projects if you have a log-in.
A projects map highlights schemes funded across the UK and direct links to the 11 London based retrofit schemes follow below.
Eco Hub at Lordship Recreation Ground, Haringey
Hawthorn Road – Metropolitan Housing Trust, Haringey
Focus House
The Muse – Islington
Mayville Community Centre
Tower Hamlets Passivhaus Retrofit
Camden Passivhaus – London’s first certified Passivhaus
PassivHaus Retrofit – Princedale Road
Lena Gardens
Hounslow Passivhaus Retrofit – Grove Road
One Planet Sutton Retrofit
Further information on the ‘Retrofit for the Future’ programme and evaluation of the projects submitted can be viewed here.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, News
Tagged Camden, Energy Efficiency, Hackney, Haringey, Housing, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Retrofit, Sutton, Tower Hamlets
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